


Short 24 - In Memoriam

by stgjr



Series: "The Power of a Name" Series 2 - "Time Lord Triumphant" [23]
Category: BattleTech: MechWarrior, Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Multi-Fandom
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 04:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10711875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: With his hearts full of grief and loss, our narrator tries to help his slain Companion's brother deal with the aftermath of the assassination.  It remains to be seen how well it will work, as pain can blind.





	Short 24 - In Memoriam

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on October 2nd, 2014.

Time and grief have a way of warping one another, wrapping up the spirit, the mind, and distorting everything.  
  
I'm not sure how long I grieved alone for Katherine. It could have been an hour, a day... maybe a week. The pain was just too sharp.  
  
Time dulled it. I began considering things again. In particular, considering what I would do for her memory. My punishment of her killers was not something I would devote to that. Katherine deserved better.  
  
And I knew where to start. Ryan Steiner may be trapped in the Source Wall, but his propaganda and political machines would still be active for a time. Katherine's memory would not be served by seeing her killers hurt the family she loved and the realm she had dutifully served despite her wishes.  
  
I stepped out of the TARDIS and entered an office on a traveling DropShip. The _Barbarossa_ , to be exact. A head of blond hair attached to a rather short body looked up. Blue eyes narrowed. "You were there," Prince Victor said. His voice was calm but I could hear the grief and anger behind it. "You were there and did _nothing_."  
  
"I didn't know," I answered. "If I had, I would have stopped it."  
  
Victor's eyes told me my answer wasn't good enough. "With all of your power, with that magic box of yours, you're telling me you didn't see this coming? Aren't you supposed to be a Goddamned time traveler?!"  
  
"I didn't travel into your future. Not with Katherine," I answered. "I'm not here to argue. I came to help you. I can take you to Tharkad to be there for the funeral."  
  
Victor looked at me intently for a moment. "So you can do that, but you can't go back in time and stop the bombing."  
  
"The bombing is a part of my timestream now," I replied. "I can't fix it. It would create a paradox and destroy your entire cosmos."  
  
"Convenient."  
  
At that point, I felt my fury surge and struggled to fight it down. Who was this little jumped up soldier to disrespect me over something he had no knowledge of? "You listen to me," I said, trying not to growl. "I don't care how smart you're supposed to be or how you beat the Kobayashi Maru or La Mancha or whatever it was called, when it comes to the Laws of Time you know _nothing_. If I could save Katherine and your mother, _I would_. All I can do now is stop you from ruining their legacy because your little soldier brain has trouble grasping how to deal with your people."  
  
His face hardened as a response to my profound disrespect. I should have been more withdrawn, more understanding of his loss... but all I could hear was an over-important military type sounding like he was trying to dress me down. _Me_.  
  
"You come into my office and insult me to my face hours after I find out about my mother and sister being blown to pieces," Victor replied, his own cold fury showing through his tone. "Give me a reason not to throw you out."  
  
"How about what Ryan Steiner's propaganda machine is going to do to you if you miss their funeral?" I replied. "Or if you don't give them the same laying in state that your father received?"  
  
"Let him, the people of the Commonwealth..."  
  
"....the _Lyran_ people are already upset that they took the brunt of the Clan attack, not your father's people. And even though you were raised on Tharkad, even though your German is impeccable Tharkadian German and your English thick with your German accent, they see you in your military uniform strutting about and they see you as your father's son, not your mother's. They see you as an out of touch prince enamored with his military post, his military _authority_. And already the tongues will be wagging, with Ryan and his agents spreading sweet lies about your impatience to take your mother's throne. And the more you deny it the more they'll believe it." I drew closer to him, emphasizing the rather expansive height difference between us. "Your sister repeatedly gave up happiness in order to fulfill her duties. I'm not letting all of that be in vain."  
  
Victor stared at me for a long moment. When he looked away it was to reach for his intercom control. "Galen, please report to my office. Bring your things."  
  
  
  
  
There was no wonder in our quick TARDIS journey to Tharkad. No proclamations of it being bigger on the inside from an astonished Galen. The _VWORP_ of the engine was the only sound made.  
  
I only remained long enough to see there was no problem. I left afterward. I chose to materialize the TARDIS a few days in the future, during the Tharkad capital's night. Victor and the authorities had chosen the Hall in the Estates-General for the laying in State. Commonwealth flags adorned both closed caskets with pictures of mother and daughter. Even at this late time of night there were other visitors as well as security, all looking at me in astonishment as I stepped away from the TARDIS and went to the coffins. I said my goodbyes to Melissa first; she had been a kind and decent woman, the ruler that her people deserved. Her trust had been heart-warming.  
  
My hearts were tremoring when I got to Katherine's casket. I laid a hand on the fine wooden surfaced and looked at the photo, showing her open smile and her eyes full of life.  
  
The loss was excruciating. I stood there for the moment trying to keep my composure. That brilliance, snuffed out forever. Nothing I had done to punish that loss could ever replace it.  
  
At the back of my mind, a thought gnawed at me. That it was because of me that she was dead. That I had changed her fate, her destiny. It could be said, easily, that I did the right thing in doing that. That Katrina Steiner-Davion would have been the architect of civil war and mass suffering and that putting her on a different path made the Inner Sphere a better place.  
  
And that had come with a price.  
  
It wouldn't be the first time I learned the price of my actions.  
  
But at the time... I could only think of one thing. Victor was right. I _could_ have stopped it. I could have destroyed Ryan Steiner years ago. I could have done so many things to re-direct the course of history. And I had not, because it was not responsible for me to do so.  
  
And what had responsibility gotten me now?  
  
There was so much more I could change. More I _should_ change. Lives that could be saved, that could be made better.  
  
That was what being the Doctor was about, right? Helping people, healing them, making them better. And yet there was still so much wrong, so many wrongs not righted, so many lives left in pain and loss.  
  
I could do more.  
  
"I should do more," I murmured to myself. "If I had done more, you would still be alive..." I felt a tear come down my right cheek, breaking through my facade of quiet grief. "I hold back so much. I just run around. I should do more," I continued. My thoughts focused on the idea. I was a Time Lord. My mind was vast, my knowledge growing. I could do so many things with my potential.  
  
I heard boots rap against the fine tile flooring of the hall. I turned and saw a single figure enter the hall, casting pained eyes toward the caskets. "Slinking in during the middle of the night?", Victor asked.  
  
"I thought it best," I replied.  
  
"My security people found the assassin," Victor said. "Funny thing is that he disappeared off his DropShip within a day of the bombing. And now I have reports that one of Ryan Steiner's main residences was destroyed in an explosion. Ryan's personal aircraft was found at a nearby crash site."  
  
I said nothing to that.  
  
"It was you, wasn't it?"  
  
I briefly considered my options, to confirm or deny or neither. I decided for honesty. "Ryan Steiner and his assassin will never harm another being ever again."  
  
Victor didn't seem surprised by the admission. "You took the law into your own hands."  
  
"Come now, Victor, don't be naive," I scoffed. "Your law would never have touched Ryan. Not without touching off a civil war and sending him into some cushy exile with one of your enemies."  
  
"You didn't have the right to make that decision for me," Victor retorted. "My mother and sister, my _people_ , deserved justice! Real justice, not your fiat! You don't have the right to decide that kind of thing!"  
  
I glowered at him and felt my fist clench. His bodyguards tensed up. I calculated how quickly I could disable the lot of them if I so chose. To sit here and be lectured like this, by someone I _helped_...!  
  
Looking back, he was right. Ryan should have been outed publicly, punished publicly. The people deserved that. But I didn't think that way at the time. "Ryan would have fought you and you damn well know it. And then where would your precious Commonwealth be, eh? Oh, that's right, it'd be in a bit of a jam, wouldn't it? With the Clans breathing down your necks."  
  
"I would have dealt with Ryan and the assassin _appropriately_."  
  
"You mean you would have fumbled around, a little soldier boy trying to run his nation like it was a battalion, and Ryan would have run circles around you!" I pointed a finger at him. "Because that's the problem here, isn't it?! You're not cut out to lead these people! You're the reason Katherine kept coming back! She knew you couldn't hack it as ruler, you're too much the soldier giving orders! _She'd be alive if you weren't a colossal failure!_ "  
  
Victor's expression locked down into cold rage. I imagine I was turning purple as I lashed out. "Because of you, dear _Prince_ , Katherine couldn't live the life she wanted! She had to choose this... this dreary, run down excuse for civilization you call the Inner Sphere over the greatest wonders of Creation! And all because you're not _capable_. And now... now she's gone! She came back here and your petty aristocratic squabbling killed her!"  
  
"Get the hell out," Victor growled. "I don't care where you go, but _get the Hell out of my realm! NOW!_ "  
  
"I go where I please," I retorted. "Fortunately for you, with Katherine dead I have no desire to stay in this pathetic backwater, so I'll be going. Try not to burn the entire Commonwealth down before you make thirty." I turned toward the TARDIS, ready should Victor and his guards try anything.  
  
Not just ready. _Wanting_ them too. Damn my arrogance, I _wanted_ an excuse to humiliate Victor. There of all places, in the presence of Melissa and Katherine's remains. I wanted to show this pathetic little "MechWarrior" what it meant to provoke a Time Lord, the power he was calling upon his head.  
  
It would have given my frustration some outlet, at least.  
  
But Victor didn't give me that satisfaction. He showed prudence that night, saying nothing as I stepped into the TARDIS and left.  
  
  
  
  
Contrary to Victor's demand and my retort, I did return to the Commonwealth later. Twice. For good and for bad reasons.  
  
On Tharkad, I visited Katherine's grave. Tears quietly moved down my cheeks as I knelt before the tombstone and worked quietly. There were none to disturb me as I did so, for which I was thankful. "Goodbye, my dear Katherine," I said quietly as my hearts twisted in pain. "I... there's so much I could say. I can't find the words to..." I drew in a breath and tried to control my pain. "You were _brilliant_ , Katherine. You were so _brilliant_."  
  
That was all I managed to say. I couldn't find any further words. All I could do was leave behind my gift to her. My first, now my last.  
  
And so it was that the beautiful blue _mycosia_ I had given Katherine on her fifth birthday came to be planted on her grave, where it has remained since.


End file.
